


Make Me Jump Into the Air

by peregrinefalcon



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Chinese Character, Chinese Food, Chinese Language, Chinese Mythology & Folklore, Gen, Indian Character, Jewish Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-20
Updated: 2017-03-20
Packaged: 2018-10-08 06:54:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10381053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peregrinefalcon/pseuds/peregrinefalcon
Summary: After his brother brings him mooncakes for Mid-Autumn Festival, Sirius is somewhat coerced to sharing some of his culture with the other Marauders. Sirius is made to confront his sentiments regarding his family and Chinese heritage, and he is as bad at emotions as I am at writing about them. Storytelling, Chinese magic, and David Bowie ensues.----For POC Potter Week, March 2017pocpotterweek.tumblr.com





	

**Author's Note:**

> Just letting everyone know, I'm Chinese-American, but I lived in China for about six years of my childhood/adolescence and I have a very ... contentious? relationship with my culture, which kind of comes out through Sirius' characterisation in this story. If my portrayal of Sirius' relationship with Chinese culture and stuff is offensive to (other Chinese) people, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it, it's just largely based on my own experiences as an ethnically Chinese person.
> 
> Glossary for Chinese terms at the end of the fic.

Sirius Black was minding his own business at breakfast when Regulus came up to him. Usually Regulus would, in his characteristic deadpan way, read out some angry admonishment from their mother, in reaction to something that McGonagall wrote to her about … last time this happened (two days ago) was after Sirius and Peter had managed to enchant the desks to sing Muggle rock in Slughorn’s class. Slughorn found it amusing, actually. In fact, he’d rather applauded the level of skill that went into it. It was Snivellus who was thoroughly scandalised, and went and told McGonagall. If there is one thing McGonagall hated more than raisins and lying, it was disrupting class. So of course Mother heard of it. And then Regulus had to relay a lecture back to Sirius over breakfast, in front of the entire school. Naturally.

So, when Regulus stood up from the Slytherin table, clutching a parcel, walking expressionlessly to the Gryffindor table, Sirius was wondering how on Earth did Mother _know_. And tried not to wonder what was in that parcel. Probably something really cursed. Knowing her. _But how did she know_? They were all careful _not_ to let anyone know. Even though this was probably the coolest thing Sirius had ever done in his life and would possibly ever do in his life, showing it off was out of the question. If anyone knew, then Moo-

“ _Gē gē_.” Regulus had not shaken off the habit of referring to his older brother in Chinese, whether in public or in private. Sirius felt James, Peter, and Remus train their eyes on Regulus, and deliberately looked away from Regulus.

“Reg, what do you want?”

“ _Gē_ , it’s _zhōng qiū jié_.”

Shit. Sirius didn’t really follow the lunar calendar, so how was he to know? Like, yeah, he’s Chinese, but it’s like an _entirely different calendar_ , that’s two calendars at the same time … but okay Reg does it. But apart from that … Sirius really didn’t give as much of a shit about being Chinese than Reg did. Like, yeah sure he could feel pride for other things … like being a _Gryffindor_ , or being part of the _Marauders_ , but maybe just not really for being Chinese. Like he’s pretty un-Chinese for a Chinese person, whereas his family is … very, very Chinese. Like, _so_ Chinese. And Sirius just wasn’t like them. And didn’t want to be like them, actually. Like, at all.

But shit. Mid-Autumn Festival. He was probably expected to send like some dumb card or letter home … if you could call it that. But his parents should have already given up trying to contact him … like, he had completely stopped writing to them by second year, except when Reg forced him to write back on holidays. Sometime. By third year he thought that they would have known already and just let him be, and not sending what was probably a ticking time bomb through Regulus.

“Sirius, you look really pale. Are you alright?” Regulus asked him. Then Remus, Peter, and James directed their gazes away from Regulus and to Sirius. Dammit. Regulus was always so goddamn perceptive around Sirius, it was annoying. Mother had praised him and told Regulus that the second-born child is always more observant.

“What is it this time? What does she know?” Sirius cut straight to the point.

“What? Have you done something again?” Sirius looked at Regulus in disbelief and Reg cocked an eyebrow. “Sirius, if something’s happened … rest assured, Mother and Father don’t know.”

“Then what do you want?”

“Well, they sent these to me, and I guess you got none …” Regulus started opening the parcel.

“Well, don’t rub it in, arsehole.”

“Wasn’t trying to,” Regulus answered as he took smaller packages out of the parcel and set it next to Sirius’ plate. “Here you go. Grandmother always forgets that I hate the ones with egg yolk in them. I know you like them, so. This way they won’t go to waste.”

“ _Lǎo dì_ , I don’t need your charity or pity. Because I’m not spending this holiday with family or whatever.” Because … tonight was one of those nights.

“Sirius, it’s not charity,” Regulus said as he took another package that was not labeled _dàn huáng_ and put it on the table. The sticker on it read _lián róng_. “These are your favourites, aren’t they?”

They are, but Sirius wasn’t going to admit to it.

“Look, today is meant to be celebrated with family. And I just want you to know, that you’re still family to me. And I still think you’re mine.” Regulus put a hand on Sirius’ shoulder.

“Fine. _Xiè la_.”

Regulus turned around and walked away.

James leaned into Sirius’ line of vision. “Hey, what was all that about?”

“It’s Mid-Autumn Festival today. He was just saying hi. Apparently.”

Peter eyed the small, paper-wrapped and sticker-sealed packages curiously. “What are those? Food?”

Sirius nodded. “Yeah. They’re … mooncakes.” His eyes flickered briefly towards Remus.

“What? You can say it around me, you know. The ‘m’ word.” Remus raised an eyebrow at him.

“No, I know, Re. I mean, you’re fucking _Moony_. But the thing is … this entire festival revolves around moon-worship.  Well, kind of.”

“Dang, the Chinese still do that?” Peter said without thinking.

“Shut it, Pete!” James chastised him. “Just because Westerners don’t do it doesn’t mean …!!” He couldn’t quite catch up his sentence with his sentiments. Happened quite a lot, but usually when they were arguing about his frankly existence-consuming fascination with Lily Evans.

“Whatever,” Sirius waved dismissively at Peter and James, “It’s not like I’m going to be celebrating it or anything. It’s really a little stupid.” He threw in offhandedly.

“Well, it’s an important part of your culture, isn’t it?” Remus asked.

“You know how I feel about my _culture_ ,” Sirius muttered. James cringed a little. James was always rather proud of his Indian heritage, but the Potters were a nicer family than the Blacks, and James had always been the model son that every Asian family would dream of having … Sirius was, decidedly, not a model son at all. Regulus came pretty close, though.

“Your culture’s not your family, though,” Peter piped up. “I mean, you can hate your family and still be proud of being Chinese. After all being Chinese is pretty cool, innit? You guys figured out advanced Transfiguration way before the Europeans did, and also there are a lot of spells you can pronounce that we can’t …”

James nodded as he buttered his toast. “Wormy’s right. After all, if it weren’t for that ancient scroll you stole from your dad’s library this summer, we wouldn’t have … you know.”

“But it was just convenient. I read Chinese and I have access to ancient magic. It doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that I’m actually Chinese.” Sirius remarked.

“Look, Sirius,” Remus put his fork down and placed his hand on top of Sirius’. “You can choose to connect to your heritage however you want to. It’s your life. Like my family’s  Jewish, but like non-practicing, but recently my cousin Danielle decided to connect to her Jewish identity in a more spiritual way. You can do the opposite and divorce yourself from your Chinese heritage if you want to, but don’t do it simply because you hate your family. It’s not worth it.”

“Lads, you’re making too much of a fuss out of this.” Sirius glared at them all.

Remus didn’t remove his hand. “You know, I actually don’t mind learning more about this Mid-Autumn Festival.”

Peter chimed in. “Yeah, like what’s it about?”

“I know that we’ll be … preoccupied tonight,” Remus looked apologetic about it, even though he has absolutely no reason to feel that way, Sirius thought rather angrily, since it wasn’t fair that Remus felt that way, and he couldn’t figure out a way to make him feel better about it either. Anyway, Remus continued. “But we can celebrate earlier this evening!”

“Yeah, definitely,” James nodded. “It’ll be fun! Well. I hope it’s a fun holiday, actually. But with your family that could … not be the case.”

Sirius remembered the whole Chinese New Year fiasco from two years back and winced. “Oh, yeah. No. But we should be okay.”

People started standing up around them and shuffling away to class. “Listen, I’ll tell you guys about it later,” Sirius promised, “But if we don’t get to Transfiguration now, McGonagall will certainly have our heads …”

James groaned. “With the Slytherins, too.”

Peter nudged James with his elbow. “Cheer up, Jamie. At least take comfort in the fact that we’ll be able to see Malfoy failing to turn a sheep into a sweater …”

Sirius smirked. “Probably because he’s never seen either of those things before …”

The plates on the table started to vanish, and hurriedly Sirius picked up the mooncakes that Regulus had left him and stuffed them into his bag. “Okay, come on lads, let’s get to class before McGonagall decides to write to my parents again …”

 

\----

 

“Did you see Malfoy’s face?” Peter was still laughing, six hours after the occurrence. “He made turned it into a pile of wool instead! And when Lily …” he wheezed, “Oh bless her … transfigured her two of his quills into knitting needles and asked if he meant to knit them himself … his face …”

“I know, she’s brilliant,” James sighed dreamily. “And those needles were pretty too. A much better sight than those ghastly peacock quills he uses …”

“Literally …” Remus joined in, “I sat directly behind him once, and his quill kept poking into my eye …”

“Yeesh,” Peter recoiled sympathetically.

“Half the Slytherins looked like they were going to murder Lily right on spot … the other actually looked quite impressed with her.” Sirius sniggered.

“As they should be!” James exclaimed.

The four of them were seated on the wood floor of the Shack. Under Remus’ stern supervision they had finished homework in the Common Room before following him to the Shack to spend the night. Where no homework was to be done, naturally.

“Alright, enough about Evans and Malfoy,” Peter waved dismissively, “Sirius, you promised us an explanation for your festival thing!”

“Oi, Pettigrew, watch it. Don’t say their names in the same sentence.” James scowled.

“Gee, you’re so touchy about this,” Remus laughed, “I guess you _are_ serious about her.” He remarked teasingly.

“Of course I am!” James declared indignantly. “Malfoy isn’t even worthy of being in the same sentence as Lily, unless she is totally kicking his arse. Then it’s okay.”

“I agree that the only time it is okay to talk about Malfoy is if one of our people is kicking his arse,” Sirius agreed. “Otherwise there’s actually not much reason to talk about him.”

“I don’t know man, he’s kind of shifty,” Peter looked nervous, “I hear he knows Dark Magic and all that …”

Sirius snorted. “Yeah, half the Slytherins claim they do. But if they did Dumbledore would be able to keep them in check, since he’s the most powerful wizard in the world. Also, only the Blacks know _real_ Dark Magic, but only because Sun Tsu believed that offense is the best defense … and so they felt compelled to teach their children. Whatever.”

“Isn’t Malfoy dating a Black?” Remus asked.

“Come to think of it, yeah … my cousin, Narcissa,” Sirius nodded, “But she’s pretty harmless. It’s rather sexist, but we don’t teach girls much. Also, we’re not supposed to teach ‘foreigners’ any Chinese magic. Of course I broke that rule but no one knows, so technically am I still guilty?” Sirius looked around the room with a conspiratorial grin.

“Yeah, I’d still say you are,” Remus looked at him with an unimpressed expression.

“Probably,” Peter nodded.

“But it’s not like it was for anything bad or stuff,” James shrugged.

“Alright, enough about Malfoy! Tell us more about this Mid-Autumn Festival!” Remus demanded.

“Sheesh, alright,” Sirius leaned back against the peeling walls of the Shack. “So the story starts with this guy who’s name is Hòu Yì. He’s a crazy good archer. Well, he was actually a wizard, but the Chinese Muggles think he’s just an extraordinary person because back in China wizards are common enough that people just assume they’re extra able people or people who are extra blessed by the gods or are just more enlightened than the average person, so they get extra powers. Anyway. There’s this dude. In ancient China. Thing is, there are like fucking ten suns in the sky, according to legend, and there’s this massive drought throughout the nation. My Father never really told me why there are ten suns in the sky, or how nine of them got there, but whatever. Anyway, dude shoots down nine of them and we’re back to one sun, and things are good again. Another wizard dude, who is worshipped as a deity in this time in China, is like, ay tops mate, I’m super impressed, here’s this immortality potion I made, you can drink it and become like a deity like me and people will worship you.”

“Wow, that sounds pretty sweet,” Peter remarked.

“Ha, imagine if we could have borrowed one of those extra suns for Scotland,” James commented, “Then it wouldn’t be so bloody gloomy here at Hogwarts all the time.”

“Doesn’t your name also have something to do with vanquishing suns?” Remus asked.

“Yeah. Like, supposedly eclipses happen because the Sky Dog eats the sun. Sky Dog is my namesake, goes without saying. I don’t remember how the sun gets back. Presumably he throws up. Anyway it’s supposedly cool.”

Remus shrugs. “Well, I think it’s cool.”

“Aw thanks Re. Your name is cool, too.” It really is! Sirius sincerely believed it. He was named after a founder of Rome! Sirius actually liked the Romans quite a lot. Their nature-based magic and ambitious spirit really reminded him of the stories of the Mongol mages his Grandfather Arcturus used to tell him a lot about, when Sirius was a child. Grandfather Arcturus said that although the Blacks were culturally Han Chinese, there’s a strain of Chinggis Khan’s powerful blood in them, so they were all sorted into Slytherin on account of the Great Khan’s ambition literally running through their veins. He had stopped talking to Sirius after he sorted into Gryffindor. Even though the Mongols were brave, too.

“Anyway, story!” James insisted, snapping Sirius out of his sad reminiscing-about-his-family trance.

“Cool. Yes. Anyway, this Hòu Yì dude has a wife, who is a witch, actually, who he loves super much. There isn’t enough potion for both of them, so he decides to keep the potion hidden in a safe place and live out a regular life. But one of his apprentices catches whiff of this news that his master has an immortality potion, and so when Hòu Yì went out hunting in the middle of autumn one day, the bastard broke into the dude’s house cornered Hòu Yì’s wife, Cháng É. He snatched her wand from her and broke it, and demanded her tell him where the potion is at wand-point. But Cháng É, being a very quick lass, knew that he wouldn’t dare kill her for fear of losing knowledge of where the potion is, but that he also wouldn’t let her go because he could use her as a hostage to get the potion as ransom from Hòu Yì.”

“Shit, that’s fucked up.” Peter commented.

“Yeah no kidding. Welcome to Chinese folklore,” Sirius continued, “But no yeah Cháng É is really smart, if they had Hogwarts in China way back then she would’ve probably been a Ravenclaw. Anyway, she’s also a really powerful witch, and creates a wandless shield spell and basically runs away from him, finds the potion, and drinks it before he can get to him. And okay, here’s the caveat - like a Chinese immortality elixir literally turns you into a god-like being, making you stay in the sky and all that. You also get immense power from it, so Muggles will literally worship you, but yeah the recipe was lost in the whole war with the Mongols in the thirteenth century. Anyway, so she flies away from him into outer space, and in order to stay close to her husband she chooses the moon as her new home, because it’s the closest to Earth.”

“Wicked. So it was a Chinese woman who first got to the moon? Not Yuri Gagarin?” Remus grinned.

“Yeah. I guess you could look at it that way,” Sirius smiled back. “But yeah Hòu Yì got back and was like really sad. So he put out her favourite sweets and fruits out as a sacrifice every year, same time on the lunar calendar. People say it’s when the moon is the absolute roundest all year. And then the townspeople felt bad so they would come together and mourn with him. So it’s supposed to be a holiday of gathering with your family and loved ones, compose poems about how lovely the moon is, and the traditional sacrificial snacks - mooncakes and fruits - are now snacks people enjoy during the festival.”

“Gee, that’s really nice. Is that why Regulus made a big deal today with all that brotherly stuff?” James asked.

“Yeah, I guess. This whole Chinese fascination with family means a lot to him,” Sirius answered, “Ever since we were kids he’d always be excited on these holidays, when we got to see extended relatives who’d tell him outrageous stories and pamper him … of course I’d always fight with them, but he’d do his best to play peacemaker and make everyone nice and pleasant just for him …”

“Well, I think he truly just wants everyone to get along,” Remus said.

“Probably. I think my brother has probably got a good heart. It’s surprising he has one at all, given the family that we have. But he’s really too naïve to believe that … _given the family that we have_.”

“Hey, you can’t fault him for trying,” James shrugged. “I can’t say I don’t admire him for that. What do you think, Peter?”

“Cháng É is really cool, man,” Peter mused, clearly still engrossed in Sirius’ storytelling. “Like, she’s got balls … being able to walk away from your family like that in order to save them. I couldn’t do that. No, I don’t think I could. This actually reminds me a bit of that Muggle song you showed us last week, Sirius, about the … space man? David, was his name? But yeah I didn’t know magic could get you to space …”

“David Bowie!” James exclaimed, “Yeah I remember that song, it’s a pretty good song!”

Remus climbed up the rickety bed in the Shack, and stood on it as if he were on a stage. “I’m an alligator!” He declared. “I’m a mama-papa coming for you! I’m the space invader,” he made finger-guns, “I’ll be a rock ‘n’ rollin’ bitch for you,” he pretended to play guitar whilst thrusting his hips, “Keep your mouth shut, you’re squawking like a pink monkey bird, and I’m busting up my brains for the words.”

He gestured at Sirius to come over, which Sirius did. He tucked his long black hair behind his ears and jumped onto the bed, striking a pose as he yelled, “Keep your ‘lectric eye on me, babe,” he winked at Remus, “Put your ray gun to my head, press your space face close to mine, love,” he crooned, and then waving his hands madly in the air, he sang, “Freak out in a moonage daydream, oh yeah!”

James stood up on the floor and pretended to use his wand as a microphone. “Don’t fake it baby, lay the real thing on me; The church of man, love, is such a holy place to be!” He sang as Peter spelled his messy black hair Evans red. Remus and Sirius collapsed laughing on the bed as James looked angrily at Peter. “Pettigrew, what have you done!” But Peter was too busy laughing to answer.

Sirius wiped tears away from his eyes. “Anyway, that’s not the only version of the story. My Uncle Alphard told me that in another interpretation, Hòu Yì became a right bastard after shooting down nine suns. Like, he was made a king, and demanded the most powerful wizard in the nation to give him the immortality potion. However, Cháng É didn’t want to see her cruel and mean husband rule China for all eternity, so she snuck into the wizard’s house and stole the potion from under his nose, and drank it so her husband couldn’t. The arsehole husband actually shot at her as she rose to the moon, but he missed. He was so angry that he soon died of anger, it was said. And all the Chinese people would celebrate her on this festival and offer her sacrifices of sweets and fruits.”

“Oh that’s badass too,” James remarked. “I like a woman with spirit.”

Remus gestured at James’ still-ginger hair. “Yeah, that’s certainly clear.”

James waved him away, annoyed. “I still have no clue what Pettigrew did to me! Honestly, did Dumbledore not think to provide a mirror? Oh shit Re-”

Remus laughed. “No, I guess he didn’t want me to see my werewolf self transforming, I guess. But I don’t know, I’ve never seen it. It could be a lot less terrifying than I imagine it being.”

They all laughed together, and Sirius took the mooncakes out of his bag. “Here, let’s eat these before it gets too dark.” He opened the packages and took out a knife to cut the mooncakes into quarters.

“Alright, so this one’s sweet red bean paste and egg yolk,” Sirius pointed to the mooncake on the left, “this one’s green tea paste and egg yolk,” he pointed to the one in the centre, “and this one is plain sweet lotus paste.” He gestured to the one on the right.

“So is this meant to be in honour of that Chinese witch? Because she likes them?” Peter said as he picked up a quarter of the red bean one and bit into it. “Oh, this is really sweet …”

“Yes, and yes,” Sirius himself picked up a piece of the red bean mooncake and took a small bite out of it. “Lady had a sweet tooth, it seems. Once I actually just took a large bite out of one and it made my teeth hurt, since it was so sweet.”

“It’s really good though,” Remus said, shoving the rest of his piece of red bean mooncake into his mouth and reaching for a piece of the green tea one.

“It’s not what I expected,” James admitted as he chewed thoughtfully. “It’s definitely more dense than I imagined … not a ‘cake’ in the Western sense of the word. And the egg yolk is very salty!”

“Yeah, they're pickled egg yolks. Too salty, according to Regulus,” Sirius laughed. “He thinks the saltiness is too overpowering and weird for him.”

“I like it though,” Peter confessed, taking a bite out of his piece of green tea mooncake.

“It’s not bad with the egg yolk,” James agreed, “But I think I might like it better without it. It’s a little strange. It’s especially strange with the red bean, which is really sugary … but the tea one is actually kind of grassy, and it goes pretty well with it. Speaking of, I definitely did not expect the tea one to taste like that.”

Sirius shrugged. “Well, between the four of us we all have pretty different conceptions of tea, you know, culturally.”

“We all drink the same tea at school, though,” Peter said.

“Yeah, but at home we drink green teas and stuff like that,” Sirius explained.

“And at mine it’s spiced _chai_ ,” James said.

Remus laughed. “Funny how we all drink tea, a drink brewed out of the leaves of the same plant, but in such different ways.”

Peter remarked, “Sounds like some metaphor for how we’re all in the same place even though we’re so different, or something like that.”

“Look at you, Pete, being all sentimental and poetic about gatherings and stuff! So in the spirit of the holiday!” James teased him.

“Oh come on Jamie, you started it!” Peter laughed, “And besides, the poetic contribution was entirely Moony. I could never make such deep and significant connections between mundane things like tea and intangible concepts such as multicultural friendship.”

Remus stood up on the bed and mocked taking a bow. “Thank you, Wormy, for the credit and compliments. Glad to see that there is still respect for art and emotions here, and that this little group is not just about pranking Slytherins and copying homework off of poor Moony.”

“We do not copy homework off of you!” Sirius responded indignantly, “You hide it from us and make us follow your cryptic instructions to find the answer in the textbooks!”

“They’re hardly cryptic!” Remus defended himself, “You just don’t want to open the textbooks!”

“They’re heavy,” Sirius whined, “And besides, Re, you’re much better at explaining all the theories and laws and history and stuff …”

James nodded. “Honestly, Re, have you looked into maybe teaching after school?”

“You’d make a good professor,” Peter chimed in, “Maybe Defense Against the Dark Arts! It’s my favourite class.”

Remus laughed. “Sure. They’d hire a werewolf to teach that class.”

“It wouldn’t be fair for them to turn you away,” James frowned. “I’m sure Dumbledore would let you if you asked.”

Remus waved his hand dismissively. “S’alright. It’s not like I want the position anyway - there’ve been rumous going around since ages ago saying that it’s cursed. I think I’d rather do something else, like, I dunno, write books or something.”

“Wow, you’re such a nerd,” Sirius remarked teasingly.

“They’ll be cool books,” Remus glared at him, “About adventures and stuff. Maybe some useful information for, like, survival or something.”

“You know … you’d be a really good writer,” Peter commented, “Like, I secretly read your Charms essay the other day because I was having trouble with mine, and even though it was boring theory stuff you made it sound interesting and easy to understand. And it was nicely written.”

“Oi! Don’t go around stealing my homework!”

“Wasn’t stealing it!! S’not like I copied anything!”

“Next time you need help, just ask me!”

“Couldn’t, you were in class and it was an emergency!”

Sirius looked out the window. The sky was already turning into a darkish colour, and soon it would be night and the moon would be upon them. “Hey, we should probably finish the last one before the moon comes up.” He picked up a piece of the lotus mooncake. “I wonder what my Mother would think of this highly unorthodox way of celebrating Mid-Autumn Festival. Eating mooncake before the moon rises.”

“She’d probably go into a rage,” James hypothesised.

“Good,” Sirius took a bite of the lotus mooncake. It was so good. “Guys, just letting you know, this one is my favourite.”

“Oh yeah, this one’s definitely mine,” James nodded, “Could just be that it doesn’t have any egg yolk in it, though.”

“It does taste good with egg yolk, but I do like this one better plain,” Sirius confessed.

“Mmm. But I wonder if people make chocolate mooncakes,” said Remus, “Or is it too unorthodox?”

“I think people do make chocolate ones now,” Sirius scratched at his hair. “You can have chocolate in the crust or in the paste. But yeah, my parents would definitely consider it wrong and not buy it.”

“I’m curious now. Could we make mooncakes?” Remus asked.

“It’s probably pretty difficult. We could try.” Sirius responded.

“I hear Lily’s pretty good at cooking …” James suggested quietly.

Peter laughed. “Jamie, you think Lily’s good at _everything_.”

“Well, she probably _is_ good at everything,” he said defensively and pushed his glasses up huffily.

“Knowing Regulus, he likely has a recipe, so we could try if you want to,” Sirius suggested.

“Cooking … I don’t know, lads, most of you can barely pass Potions, I wouldn’t trust my food in your hands, no offense,” Remus laughed, and all four of them started laughing with him.

Peter looked out the window of the Shack. It was already pretty dark, and the moon was glowing weakly in the corner. “Alright lads, let’s get to it.”

“Yeah,” James agreed. “Come on, let’s do it.”

In a whiff of wispy white smoke, Peter shrunk into his rat form, James grew into a giant red stag, and Sirius morphed into a black dog. Remus reached over and started running his fingers through Sirius’ pelt, and Peter clambered onto Remus shoulder. Sirius could hear Peter’s shrill rat voice say to Remus, “You alright?”

“Alright,” Remus answered, as all four of them waited for the moonlight to stream in through the window.

 

\----

 

It was two in the afternoon. Sirius had finished his classes for the day, and was sitting in the infirmary. Remus often took the day after off, since he’d be raving all night, and was weak and scratched up afterwards. James, Sirius, and Peter were well enough to go to class after an aggressive coffee-drinking contest (James usually won, because the monster takes his coffee black in order to save time), usually. Sometimes Peter still slept in.

As Sirius waited for Remus to wake up, he thumbed through his Arithmancy textbook boredly. He had not wanted to take this elective, but his Father had told him that Lucius Malfoy had picked it up, and was he really going to be content settling behind Malfoy? He was Chinese and he was a Black, and so he should study like one! Sirius actually didn’t share Orion’s views on education and Chinese intellectual superiority, but he disliked Malfoy enough that to score better than him was good enough for Sirius.

“Hey,” Remus croaked at him. Sirius quickly grabbed the glass of water that Madame Pomfrey had left at the nightstand and handed it to Remus. Remus drank the water with relish and put it back. “Man,” he managed after coughing for a while, “How noisy was I last night? Feel like my throat’s about to fall apart.”

“Well, rumour has it that the moon _is_ roundest on Mid-Autumn Festival,” Sirius shrugged.

“What, do you remember how round the full moon is every time you see it, and then compare notes?”

“Actually, sounds like something bored Chinese scholars probably did.”

“Haha. Anyway, thanks for sharing your festival with us, and the mooncakes. They were really good, and it felt good celebrating on a full moon rather than anxiously waiting for the moon to come.”

“It’s nothing. I’m glad you liked it.”

“I did. It was cool. Please thank your brother for the mooncakes.”

“I don’t really talk to him-”

“Well, write to him, then. You have an owl.”

“Moony, you know what I mean.”

Remus sighed. “I know, but you should should at least try to treat Regulus better. He still cares about you, despite what the rest of your family think. I would also say something about maybe reconnecting with your culture, which is actually really cool and not entirely arrogant or superstitious or prejudiced, but as someone who is not Chinese, it is not in my place to say that.”

Sirius shook his head resignedly. “Okay. Sure. Maybe. But it probably won’t happen for a long while. Y’know.”

“That’s okay. I know stuff like this takes time. But be nicer to Reg, before you lose him, too.”

“Jeez, Moony, do you always have to be such a downer?”

Remus shrugged. “I dunno, I guess I’ve always been a sentimental realist, unfortunately.”

“Lupin! You’re up!” Madame Pomfrey came bustling over from the other end of the infirmary. “Are you feeling better, lad?”

“Much, thank you.” Remus smiled and it pulled at a scar that ran from his cheek to his chin.

Madame Pomfrey threw a look at Sirius, and Sirius closed his book. Remus gave Sirius’ hand a squeeze and let it go. “I’ll see you later, back at the Common Room then?” Sirius asked Remus as he stood up and straightened his robes.

“Yeah, you bet.” Remus answered with a smile, and Sirius turned around, walking towards the door.

He heard Madame Pomfrey talk to Remus, her voice soft and cool, like tiger balm. “You’ve been looking much better in the recent months, Lupin. Just a few bruises and shallow cuts, nothing too deep or nasty like before, really …”

Sirius could feel Remus smiling at her as he replied, “Oh yes, I guess it must be because I’m getting older, and the help I’ve been getting from Hogwarts has really been good for me …” Secretly Sirius felt proud that he, James, and Peter had helped Remus through this process. After all, that was what friends were for. Helping each other.

That’s what family was for. And this was his family. Remus, James, Peter … and Regulus.

Sirius slid out the door and made his way to the owlery.

**Author's Note:**

> gē 哥: older brother  
> zhōng qiū jié 中秋节: Mid-Autumn Festival  
> lǎo dì 老弟: 弟 means younger brother, 老 technically means 'old' but it's a prefix of endearment in Chinese  
> dàn huáng 蛋黄: egg yolk  
> lián róng 莲蓉: sweet lotus paste  
> xiè la 谢啦: 谢 means thanks, 啦 doesn't have any real meaning but used with 谢 it's kind of an informal thanks, like the Chinese equivalent of 'ta' or 'cheers'
> 
> 'Moonage Daydream' by the one and only David Bowie: https://youtu.be/LaqMwE5NKaM
> 
> Hou Yi and Chang E are also like ... Muggles in the original myths. Hou Yi is just a really good archer. But I thought it made more sense go back and change them into wizards, too.
> 
> Also, I know that Animagus transformations do not look canonically like that, but since Sirius referenced a Chinese wizarding text from it, I decided to add a Chinese twist to it ... and yeah the Chinese LOVE shrouding deities and wizards and holy people and also various monsters, fairies, and whatever in thin wispy smoke.
> 
> Please feel free to ask me any questions you have! If you're Chinese, you can also speak to me in Chinese :)
> 
> As always, constructive criticism is much appreciated!
> 
> I'm also on tumblr for those who are interested: saladtsar.tumblr.com


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